1963 New York Yankees: A Season of Dominance, A World Series To Forget

After winning the World Series in 1961 and 1962 under Manager Ralph Houk, the 1963 New York Yankees set out to win their fourth American League Pennant in a row and third World Series in a row.

During the off-season, the Yankees traded away first baseman Moose Skowron to the LA Dodgers. The 22-year-old Joe Pepitone replaced him.

The team got off to a slow start, and by May 10th, it was a .500 team with a 12–12 record. However, the mediocrity didn’t last long, as the Yankees won 14 of their next 17 games. Despite losing Mickey Mantle, who broke his foot on June 5th, the Yankees were 50–31 by the All-Star break.

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW THIS PODCAST FOR FREE

1963 All-Star Break

Mantle made the All-Star team despite his injury. Joining Mantle on the All-Star team was his replacement, Tom Tresh, catcher Elston Howard, first baseman Joe Pepitone, second baseman Bobby Richardson, and pitcher Jim Bouton.

By the end of July, the Yankees record was 66–37. With Mantle returning in August, the team upped its record to 90–47 by Labor Day, and the chances of any other team in the American League catching up with them were slim and none.

They finished the season with an impressive 104–57 record, ten and a half games ahead of the second-place Chicago White Sox.

End of Season Stats

Mickey Mantle led the team in batting average at .314 but played in only 65 games due to injury. Although at the end of his career, Yogi Berra, now 38, batted .293. Elston Howard, now the starting catcher, batted .287, had 85 RBIs, and led the team in home runs with 28. Youngster Joe Pepitone led the team in RBIs with 89 while belting 27 home runs.

The pitching staff was led by 34-year-old Whitey Ford, who went 24–7 with a 2.74 ERA. The 24-year-old Jim Bouton went 21-7 with a 2.53 ERA.

Ford, who did not make the All-Star team, finished third in the voting for the American League MVP. But the award did go to another Yankee, Elston Howard.

1963 World Series

Now, it was on to the World Series to take on the National League Champion Los Angeles Dodgers. It would be the eighth time the two teams would face each other in the fall classic but the first time since the Dodgers left their former home in Brooklyn.

Game one matched the two best pitchers in baseball, with Whitey Ford starting for New York and Cy Young award winner Sandy Koufax starting for LA.

Ford got rocked in the second inning, allowing four runs. Former Yankee Bill ‘Moose’ Skowron drove in the first run, and then catcher John Roseboro hit a three-run home run. Skowron drove in another run in the third inning, and by the fifth inning, it was time for Whitey Ford to hit the showers. The Yankees scored two runs in the eighth inning, but it was too little, too late. Koufax struck out fifteen batters.

Things didn’t get any better for the Bronx Bombers in game two as the Dodgers took a 2–0 lead in the first inning. Moose Skowron continued to haunt his old team by smashing a solo home run in the fourth inning. Yankees starting pitcher Al Dowling fared no better than Whitey Ford in game one, getting yanked after five innings.

The Dodgers added another run in the eighth inning on a Tommy Davis RBI triple. Davis had two triples in the game, while Willie Davis had two doubles and two RBIs. The Yankees finally scored a run, but not until the ninth inning. Dodgers pitcher Johnny Podres got all but the last two outs to give LA a 4–1 victory.

Game three was a pitcher’s duel between Jim Bouton and Don Drysdale. LA took a 1–0 lead in the first inning, the game’s only run. Bouton pitched seven complete innings, allowing only four hits, but he was outdone by Drysdale, who went the distance, allowing only three singles. The final out of the game had Dodgers fans holding their breath as a solid shot by Joe Pepitone was caught against the bullpen gate by right fielder Ron Fairly.

Game four was a rematch between Sandy Koufax and Whitey Ford. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when Big Frank Howard blasted a home run into the second deck of Dodger Stadium. Mickey Mantle tied the game in the top of the seventh with a solo home run, the Yankee’s only home run of the Series. But LA retook the lead in the bottom of the seventh and went on to win the game 2–1. Koufax pitched another outstanding game but was outdone by Whitey Ford, who allowed only two hits in the loss.

It was not the Yankees’ pitching staff that failed them but their hitting. They scored only four runs on twenty-two hits in this Series. It is often said that good pitching wins the World Series, and the Dodgers proved it.

The 1963 Dodgers had an outstanding team, so it wasn’t any great surprise that they defeated the Yankees. But it was surprising that they swept the Bombers in four games, the first of only two times the Yankees were swept in a World Series (the other coming in 1976 to the Reds).

During the off-season, Ralph Houk, the Yankee Skipper, stepped down to become the team’s General Manager. Yogi Berra would become the new Yankees Manager for the 1964 season.

There was also a change in ownership, as CBS became the majority owner of the Yankees.

A month and a half after the World Series ended, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and it would be a while before anyone was thinking about baseball.

Please Consider Sharing If You Like This Article

Mark Morthier is the host of Yesterday’s Sports, a podcast dedicated to reliving memorable sports moments from his childhood days and beyond. He grew up in New Jersey just across from New York City, so many of his episodes revolve around the great sport’s teams of the 70s for the New York area.

He is also an author of No Nonsense, Old School Weight Training (Second Edition): A Guide for People with Limited Time and Running Wild: (Growing Up in the 1970s)